Radio astronomer Ellie Arroway leads the SETI-derived Project Argus team that detects and decodes an extraterrestrial signal from Vega, a discovery that leads to construction of an enigmatic interstellar Machine and to Ellie's own journey through it, forcing her and the world to reckon with the boundaries between science, faith, and the numinous.
Books mentioned in Contact (16)
Metamorphoses by Ovid: “he would declaim to the astonished onlookers from Book 6 of Ovid's Metamorphoses: Monarch of Violence, rolling on clouds...”
Ode on a Grecian Urn by John Keats: Chapter epigraph: "—JOHN KEATS 'Ode on a Grecian Urn' (1820)"
Religio Medici by Thomas Browne: Chapter epigraph: "—THOMAS BROWNE 'On Dreams' Religio Medici (1642)"
Songs of Experience by William Blake: Chapter epigraph: "—WILLIAM BLAKE Songs of Experience 'The Fly,' Stanzas 1-3 (1795)"
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman: Chapter epigraph: "—WALT WHITMAN Leaves of Grass 'Song of the Open Road' (1855)"
Poems by Ralph Waldo Emerson: Chapter epigraph: "—RALPH WALDO EMERSON 'Merlin,' Poems (1847)"
Politics by Aristotle: Chapter epigraph: "—ARISTOTLE The Politics Book 2, Chapter 5"
De Natura Deorum by Cicero: Chapter epigraph: "—CICERO De Natura Deorum, I, 1"
The Confessions by Augustine of Hippo: Chapter epigraph: "—AUGUSTINE Confessions, II, 3"
The City of God by Augustine: Chapter epigraph: "—AUGUSTINE The City of God, VIII, 22"
Skeptical Essays by Bertrand Russell: Chapter epigraph: "—BERTRAND RUSSELL Skeptical Essays, I (1928)"
Cinna by Pierre Corneille: Chapter epigraph: "—PIERRE CORNEILLE Cinna (1640), Act IV, Scene II"
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare: Chapter epigraph: "—WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Romeo and Juliet" ("Oh, speak again, bright angel...")
The Idea of the Holy by Rudolf Otto: “somebody named Rudolph Otto in a 1923 book, The Idea of the Holy. He believed that humans were predisposed to detect and revere the numinous... He called it the misterium tremendum.”
Poems (poem no. 1741) by Emily Dickinson: Chapter epigraph: "—EMILY DICKINSON Poem Number 1741"
Encyclopaedia Britannica: “"there's this couple lying naked in bed reading the Encyclopaedia Britannica to each other"; later she reaches for "Volume 16 of an old Encyclopaedia Britannica Macropaedia, titled 'Rubens to Somalia'" and reads the article "Sacred or Holy."”